Books #42

[SaintLeo]

My list before I overthink it more than I already have! In no particular order…

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
6. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
7. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
8. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
9. Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes
10. Riders by Jilly Cooper

There was always going to be a Jane Austen on my list. I went backwards and forwards between P&P, Emma and Persuasion but ultimately P&P won out as it was the first of her books I read and that one that introduced me to her work.

Re Jilly Cooper, obviously an author who is ever going to make those Guardian or NYT lists because of the type of books she wrote, but over the years the Rutshire Chronicles have been the books I’ve gone back to more than any others. I adore the characters and the world she created for them so she has to be in my top 10. I actually think Polo is my favourite but Riders makes the list for the same reason as P&P - the one that started my love for Jilly and all her books.

 

[Carapop]

Omg you guys, the Guardian list is amazing. Each book has a checkbox so you can tick the ones you’ve read, they include the book’s first line and the writers who had voted for it. And when you click into a writer you can see their top ten!

 

[mindlessness]

Okay. I think this is my list? maybe. I've probably forgotten books.

A Month in the Country - J.L. Carr
Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie
The Feast - Margaret Kennedy
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Beach Read - Emily Henry*
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Marriage Plot - Jeffery Eugenides

*I am a basic girl, and couldn't not give my fav emhen a spot on the list.

 

[LaBlonde]

You must have missed it @nbt ! Was way back here. I’m afraid I didn’t proceed past this point

if we had thread titles here i would want “i’m totally down with telepathic dinosaurs and inter species sex” to be our next one 🥲

 

[dressinggownofdoom]

I’ve just realised it’s the end of the month and tomorrow brings new kindle deals! yay!

 

[Warpaint]

I'm still 100% books as it's like the last bit of physical media for me, so don't want to let them go just yet. Everything else is on a screen so it's a nice change. I keep the book numbers down by constantly having a 'straight to charity shop' pile when I've read them.

 

[LaBlonde]

Would people be interested in us doing our own list? Posters give a Top 10 and I'll compile them into an overall list?

There might not be enough of us to get 100 novels but I bet it would be more varied!

i’m back! this aren’t ranked because frankly i refuse and it would be impossible but:

the age of innocence - edith wharton
les miserables - victor hugo
the count of monte cristo - alexandre dumas
the goldfinch - donna tartt
in memoriam - alice winn
amazing adventures of kavalier&clay - michael chabon
middlesex - jeffrey eugenides
home - marilynne robinson
the great believers - rebecca makkai
half of the human race - anthony quinn

this would change any given day you asked me but this is what i’m going with right now

 

[QueenBW]

A lot of booktok/bookstagram seems to be more about the aesthetic of reading than actually reading.

They're only interested in an incredibly narrow range of books, there's a lot of overconsumption with buying numerous different expensive decorated editions of the same book + book "merch" and pointless accessories; and I've seen several clips of booktokers admitting they basically just skim books, won't read prologues or epilogues, won't read paragraphs of more than a certain length etc.

It's like those people who claim to have read 400 books in a year but it turns out they read chatGPT summaries...

Social media truly is where neurons go to die.

 

[Mamacita]

Nah I'm sorry booktok but this is gonna be a very rare DNF for me and even more rare amazon refund request

 

[tarahalls]

I’m loving seeing all the Top 10 lists I’ve compiled my list below, they’re all books I remember feeling something deeply for at the time & still hold a special place in my heart.

In no particular order -

• The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
• Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
• Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa
• The Crimson Petal & The White - Michael Faber
• Room - Emma Donoghue
• A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
• The Power of the Dog - Don Winslow
• American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
• Wild Swans - Jung Chang
• The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

(3 extra I struggled to get on the list are The House of the Spirits, The Kite Runner & The Secret Friend (my preferred Donna Tartt novel) & maybe I’d swap out Room & American Pyscho if I did this on a different day )

 

[nbt]

According to StoryGraph, I’ve read more in physical book than I have audio so far this year.

I’ve set myself a goal for at least 5 chapters a day currently though, and I’m reading Lethal White so it’s very enjoyable. I don’t think I’ll ever be completely torn away from actual books. There’s just something too exciting about them. I’ve got Broken Country to collect from the library tomorrow (thanks to you lot!) and I’m excited.

Also reading Vladimir on my kindle (going through A-Z still) and I’m finding it… underwhelming I guess is the word.

 

[chickhicks86]

I want to Google "dinosaur erotica" and see what comes up. But what if I die and someone looks at my search history?

 

[Kerrie86]

Devoured atmosphere in a day and a half. Loved it. Cried at the end on a lounger by the pool.

 

[Libbylulu]

To Kill a Mockingbird
The First Day of Spring
East of Eden
Hum if You Don’t Know the Words
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A History of Loneliness
Two Brothers
Foster
The Mammy
The Happiest Man on Earth

 

[Cheddar Chalpupa]

Lads, I made the mistake of reading a physical book and not my Kindle last week and lost my 250+ week streak.

I've already defrauded the app and got it back, but morally that's ok isn't it? I did read, just not on the kindle. It feel like my streak is tainted now, every time I look at the number going up i'm going to know it's just a filthy lie!

 

[ToxicPony]

I'm on 18 of the Guardian Books list. I have to say, it's a really boring list - same old books as always, nothing surprising, barely anything 'genre'. Extremely bland and I don't see how it took supposed experts to come up with it.

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

Houston. We have a problem.

My top ten list is currently 33 books long. Every time I go to take one out I feel like I am removing a family member.

Come back tomorrow for tomorrow's trauma.

If it helps I just banged out (ooh er) the first 10 that came to mind and pressed post to avoid angsting over it.

 

[ordinaryjelly]

What a funny coincidence. I checked my email and had an email about the upcoming Elizabeth Strout book, a signed hardbdack edition of The Things We Cannot Say.

I am still sticking to my 8 book tbr. It has been easy once I got used to it. At the beginning I kept wanting 99p deals or books I saw well reviewed on BookTok or somewhere. But then I realised they would just be filler books or just because books that would bulk up my shelves back into the 20s, 50s, 100s of tbr books that I would almost certainly never get around to reading as they'd become buried. I started saving up the money that I would have spent on those books. I have £287.46p currently. Which suggests a book buying habit that was completely out of control.

I really put some conscious thoughts into my purchases now, will I read it soon? Is it actually a book I want? How does it fit in with my other current tbr books? and so on.

Now I have got used to it it is actually fun doing it this way.

 

[anniemouse]

I just finished the audio of Project Hail Mary. I’m at work and I think I need to go and have a cry in the toilets

 

[ahkrin]

I checked my 5 star/favourites lists but I'm afraid none of then are recommendation worthy. It is mostly full of books I know to be bang average but I just enjoyed them very much Or very well known books in general.

The book curse is broken, I spent almost all Sunday reading. Richard Osman is getting a fruit basket from me for keeping my attention this long when my brain felt like a chihuahua on cocaine after spending weeks scrolling on my phone. Can't wait to finish it this evening and start the next one.

My list is basically books that evoke a strong emotion in me regardless of whether they're technically well written or influential or whatever.